Saturday, January 28, 2017

Lake Havasu State Park

Our journey south this winter was greatly influenced by the magnetic pull of our friend John West who lives in Lake Havasu City. When we arrived at Lake Havasu State Park yesterday morning we got the last available campsite, #43. It's hard to believe our good fortune sometimes. Before getting to our campsite we stopped to bird at the Cactus Garden. To my astonishment the first bird I saw was a sapsucker, and in the very tree I had spent a good amount of time watching a previous sapsucker. When we were here in the winter of 2012-13, I created a little bit of a stir here when I identified a Yellow-breasted Sapsucker, opposed to the common Red-naped Sapsucker. A well known local birder and photographer John West dropped by to check out that bird, and that is how we met John West. Yesterday's bird was actually a Red-naped Sapsucker, but still a sapsucker never the less, and in the very tree was pretty amazing.

Red-naped Sapsucker

Another bird that I enjoyed seeing again was a male Anna's Hummingbird. They are quite protective of their territory, and a fiesty male dive bombed me yesterday from a perch where I have always found him or his kind.

Anna's Hummingbird male

John bicycled over in the afternoon and we had a great visit. We took a short walk along the shoreline, looking for and photographing birds. John showed us the big improvements the park has made with a new boat launch, dock and parking area. Our visit to Lake Havasu, though short, seemed complete with our time with John.

1 comment:

It was really good to see my friends from Oregon show up in LHC. Buster seemed to lead the way at his old stomping grounds as he was accompanied by Jim & Jeanette and me for a bird walk. Good friends. Great friends! Thanks for a fun visit!